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J. Daniel Ashton

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Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, —Ecclesiastes 9:10a NIV
The LORD God has told us what is right and what he demands:
"See that justice is done,
let mercy be your first concern,
and humbly obey your God." —Micah 6:8, CEV
With all your heart you must trust the LORD and not your own judgment.
Always let Him lead you, and He will clear the road for you to follow. —Proverbs 3:5,6 CEV

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Name: Daniel Ashton
Location: Germantown, Maryland, United States


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Monday, June 25, 2007

Heading Home

We're on our way home from CMW '07. We spent a few late-night hours at a Comfort Inn near Kingsport, TN, and ate breakfast at the Perkins on the same property. We're just adding up how many things we didn't think to do before we hit the highway, like filling the gas tank or telling the cashier at the restaurant that we deserve a discount because we stayed at their hotel.

I'm on-line thanks to my Verizon Wireless Palm Treo 700p. (Is that enough product placement?) It has been a good phone, and there has been nothing on the market that I would strongly prefer. (Although Verizon Wireless' coverage is spotty here, north of Bristol, and I would appreciate a car cradle that would boost the signal strength. In fact, if your Internet connection is through Verizon Wireless, don't bother trying to be online if you're riding on I-81 through the hills of southern Virginia south of I-77: it's a waste of your time to even try.) However, that will change on June 29. As my dear friend and brother-in-law pointed out earlier in the weekend, the Apple iPhone is only days away. But I haven't figured out yet how to afford one. Oh well!

As we drive we're listening to the Foote piano quintet, one of my more recently-acquired favorites, and we have the Mendelssohn string quintets and Beethoven violin sonatas in queue. I also want to add the Dohnanyi piano quintet to my list of favorite chamber works. In general, I seem to find more joy in the works with a larger number of players--quintets and octets, for example--and if one of the parts is for piano, that's even better.

The kids are chugging through more math assignments, and I'm getting into some work for IBM, while Vicki drives. We've just passed Bristol and filled the gas tank. I need to be home by 5:30 this evening so I can collect my trumpet and music and hurry over to brass practice at 6:30. At this point it looks like we should make it comfortably, at least according to Google Maps.

The biggest challenge we face at the moment is exhaustion. We came into this week with no physical or emotional energy in reserve, and making music, especially leading ensembles, demands both kinds of energy. All of us are in more or less of an energy deficit, and the world appears, if not foggy, at least fuzzy. But God's tender watch-care is always with us, and so we set ourselves to do what the day calls for, namely driving home.

CMW this year was good in the average ways that CMW should be good for anyone. I was disappointed in my own contributions: lacking the energy reserves, and fighting queasiness, I felt and acted, I fear, very blah. There were only a few moments when I knew I was able to provide real leadership, energy and emotional support to my fellow musicians. I need to find renewal and make opportunities to have better musical experiences soon, perhaps through ACMP.

3 Comments:

Blogger Tanner Lovelace said...

I, personally, didn't think you acted very "blah". I thought you did a very good job, especially helping people keep up with the music. My standards, though, are probably lower than yours, especially for yourself.

Question for you. How many different musical groups are you involved with and what are they?

It was very good to see all of you this weekend and I hope your trip home was peaceful.

10:30 AM  
Blogger Daniel said...

Thanks for the kind words, Tanner. They are much appreciated.

On a week-to-week basis, I'm involved with two groups in Maryland. I'm the choir director at Rockville United Methodist Church. And I lead a brass ensemble rehearsing at Triadelphia SDA and the Columbia Union Conference office.

Regarding HDR tools for Mac OS X: All three of the programs I've read about work on both Windows and Mac. Photoshop CS2 and CS3 can do HDR processing. I've purchased a copy of FDRTools, and I expect to purchase a copy of Photomatix.

7:07 AM  
Blogger Tanner Lovelace said...

Cool! Thanks for the info about the HDR programs. I will keep that in mind for when I can get a camera that will do what needs to be done to produce input for them.

8:55 AM  

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